Coming Out
by AliceLikeFireflies
Summary: Spencer finally comes out to the team. Oneshot. Do not read if you're against gay rights- obviously. :L


Derek Morgan supposed it was just bad luck Hotch had decided to send them to talk to a witness together. Bad luck because the witness worked at a gay club. Bad luck because he sent Reid with him.

He had argued. Of course he had.

"Can't you send JJ or Prentiss?" He asked, annoyance evident in his voice.

Hotch had not even batted an eyelid. "No. You're going with Reid, and that's final."

Surprisingly, Reid didn't batt an eyelid either.

So here he was, climbing out of the jeep in the parking lot of a gay club with his blatantly feminine looking male friend.

"What's the witness's name?" Reid asked as they made their way toward the ominously neon entrance.

"Michael Kallister. He works as a waiter."

As they entered the building, Morgan noticed with chagrin that many of the men there where staring at Reid- or really, checking him out. The kid seemed completely oblivious.

"You the FBI agents?" A young man of about 25 walked up to them- dressed in jeans and a white shirt. Morgan noticed that his eyes lingered on Reid for a few seconds longer than was socially acceptable.

He wondered briefly why so many of the men there where so attracted to the junior FBI agent. Watching his brow furrow and his lips press together in serious concentration, Morgan concluded that pretty boy really was that. A pretty boy. And so the men around them where attracted.

A new feeling bubbled in the older agent's stomach, a feeling he couldn't identify.

Brushing the foreign emotion off, he turned back to the young waiter.

"Yeah. SSA Derek Morgan and Dr. Spencer Reid. We're here to see Michael." Morgan got out his credentials and flashed them at the young man to verify their ID.

"You're talking to him. Are you here about Wednesday...?

He nodded. Wednesday last week was the day the attack happened, and a key witness was made.

"Yes. Could you tell us if you recognized the unsub?"

"Unsub?" Michael seemed confused.

"Unidentified Subject. The bad guy." Reid explained. He had gotten out a small black book and now was scrawling hurriedly in it.

"Yeah, um... I didn't see his face. He was wearing a hood." The young man frowned slightly. "... But his hands, I saw them, and they where... strange."

"Strange how?" Morgan asked.

"They looked bumpy. Almost like they where covered in burns or scars..."

The Agents nodded. This description matched the others. It was definitely the same unsub.

"Do you remember anything else?"

"Um.. No. Sorry about that." He rubbed the back of his neck, still frowning.

He then turned to Reid.

"And if you want to come back later, Dr. Reid, I'll buy you a drink. Unless you're with him"

He inclined his head in Morgan's direction, smiled flirtatiously and then walked off.

Reid blushed, turning a light shade of pink- and turned away from the music and people.

"Come on." He muttered and walked outside.

"What's wrong, pretty boy?" Morgan teased, following him out of the club.

At the endearment, Reid's blush deepened. He didn't answer and got in the car.

After at least ten minutes of non-stop teasing from Morgan, they finally got back to the station where the team's base was and went inside.

"Hey guys. Reid got propositioned by our witness." Morgan casually put the information out there.

"Isn't our witness a guy?" JJ asked, walking into the room with a cup of coffee.

"Exactly." He smiled.

Rossi choked on his coffee at that- and Hotch had to thump him on the back.

When he was finally able to speak, he asked:

"He thought Reid was gay?"

"Apparently." Morgan answered.

While this was going on, Reid had been sitting at the table, looking down at the floor as if he had just spotted an interesting pattern in the vomit colored carpeting.

When Rossi spoke, Reid looked up- a small frown on his lips.

"Would you guys really care, though?" His voice was surprisingly loud in the enclosed space, though he couldn't have been speaking very loudly.

"What?" Rossi asked.

"If I where gay. Would it make much of a difference to you?"

The rest of the team seemed cut short by the sudden serious turn the conversation had taken.

Morgan broke the silence.

"Pretty boy, you know we where just teasing..."

"Answer the question. Please." He added the 'please' as an afterthought.

There was quiet for a few moments, and then Prentiss answered.

"I don't think so... I can't answer for everyone, but I'm sure they'd agree with me when I say that if any of us came out, we'd accept them."

Everyone else nodded in agreement at her statement.

There was silence again- during which Reid looked back down at the floor.

"Is there something else you want to say?" Hotch asked. He was, after all, a profiler. He knew there was something wrong.

Reid looked up then. His normally warm hazel eyes- unsure and worried.

"I... I am." He finally said.

When no-one said anything, he continued.

"I've been... like this since I was a teenager.

Did you know that a person's sexuality is set in stone by the age of eight?"

His voice had become shaky. He took their silence for disapproval.

"You... You're attracted to men?" Morgan asked.

Reid nodded- verifying the statement.

Suddenly- he was enveloped in a warm hug. Garcia had been standing in the doorway- and she had heard every word.

"Oh my junior g-man. That is nothing to be ashamed of."

He noticed then- with embarrassment- that hot tears where streaming down his cheeks.

He had not planned on being so emotional- but he couldn't stop the flood of tears once they had started.

He had waited so long to tell them- to find the right time to come out to them, his family. And now that he had, the relief was incredible.

Everyone suddenly broke out of their frozen postures and began to talk and move again.

The girls joined Garcia in comforting Reid- JJ kneeling in front of him and wiping his tears away. Prentiss joining Garcia in hugging him.

The guys- smiling and saying supportive things like:

"We knew all along." and, "Don't worry about it pretty boy."

He realized then that this really was his family. Every single one of them accepted him- loved him, and would protect him no matter what the cost, and he would do the same for them.

And so they stayed- together in that cramped dim room where horror and sadness was so common, and together, they made their own happiness.


End file.
